“I’ll consider the matter, Mr. Jenks.  I’ll meet you here to-morrow night.  In the meanwhile, for my own satisfaction, I’ll let an expert look at these stones.”

“Get the greatest diamond expert in the world, and he’ll pronounce them perfect!” predicted the odd man.  “Now I’ll bid you goodnight, and be going.  I’ll be here at this time to-morrow.”

As Mr. Jenks turned aside there was a movement among the trees in the orchard, and a shadowy figure was seen hurrying away.

“Who’s that?” asked the diamond man, in a hoarse whisper.  “Did you see that, Tom Swift?  Some one was here—­listening to what I said!  Perhaps it was the man who has been shadowing me!”

“I think not.  I guess it was Eradicate Sampson, a colored man who does work for us,” said Tom.  “Is that you, Rad?” he called.

“Yais, sah, Massa Tom, heah I is!” answered the voice of the negro, but it came from an entirely different direction than that in which the shadowy figure had been seen.

“Where are you, Rad?” called the young inventor.

“Right heah,” was the reply, and the colored man came from the direction of the stable.  “I were jest out seein’ if mah mule Boomerang were all right.  Sometimes he’s restless, an’ don’t sleep laik he oughter.”

“Then that wasn’t you over in the orchard?” asked Tom, in some uneasiness.

“No, sah, I ain’t been in de orchard.  I were sleepin’ in mah shack, till jest a few minutes ago, when I got up, an’ went in t’ see Boomerang.  I had a dream dat some coon were tryin t’ steal him, an’ it sort ob ’sturbed me, laik.”

“If it wasn’t your man, it was some one else,” said Mr. Jenks, decidedly.

“We’ll have a look!” exclaimed Tom.  “Here, Rad, come over and scurry among those trees.  We just saw some one sneaking around.”

“I’ll sure do dat!” cried the colored man.  “Mebby it were somebody arter Boomerang!  I’ll find ’em.”

“I don’t believe it was any one after the mule,” murmured Mr. Jenks, “but it certainly was some one—­more likely some one after me.”

The three made a hasty search among the trees, but the intruder had vanished, leaving no trace.  They went out into the road, which the moon threw into bold relief along its white stretch, but there was no figure scurrying away.

“Whoever it was, is gone,” spoke Tom.  “You can go back to bed, Rad,” for the colored man, of late, had been sleeping in a shack on the Swift premises.

“And I guess it’s time for me to go, too,” added Mr. Jenks.  “I’ll be here to-morrow night, Tom, and I hope your answer will be favorable.”

Tom did not sleep well the remainder of the night, for his fitful slumbers were disturbed by dreams of enormous caves, filled with diamonds, with dark, shadowy figures trying to put him into a red-hot steel box.  Once he awakened with a start, and put his hand under his pillow to feel if the two stones Mr. Jenks had given him, were still there.  They had not been disturbed.